Page 118 of What Started In Deception

Mac smiled again as she ended the video. “I got it. I’ll send it to him right now.”

“Okay.” Everly beamed at Lydia as Lydia moved closer to the official dance party. “I can swim like a mermaid.”

“I see that.” She kissed Everly’s cheek. “You’re such a brave mermaid.”

Everly beamed again as she nodded. “Yup. We’ll see mermaids at the zoo tomorrow.”

Ty winced as he looked at Lydia. “She’s about to have a seriously disappointing zoo experience.”

Lydia laughed, adoring everything about him.

He grinned as he pulled her closer, hooking his arm around her waist. “Come see me, Lyd.”

She returned his embrace as she looked at Mac while Mac grinned and waggled her brow under her sunglasses.

Lydia rolled her eyes as she smiled because Mac didn’t understand that she and Ty were just good friends.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ty sat across from Nick at a booth in the upscale coffeehouse in downtown Shoalmans Bay. He wore a pair of athletic shorts and a tank top as he sipped at his glass of water, making hydration a priority on another hot July day.

“So, we’ve got something to work with, but not really,” Nick said.

Ty nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty much the gist of things. Will and Mac had a hell of a fight. She’s positive that he’s hiding something from her, which she thinks is an affair.”

“We need to figure out what it actually is because we know it’s not another woman.”

Ty shrugged. “For all we know, it has nothing to do with the case. But I think it does.”

Nick sighed as he sat back on his bench. “This whole thing’s a mindfuck.”

Ty raised his brow at his co-worker because Nick didn’t know the half of it. “I’ll second that.”

“And he didn’t meet you in the gym again this morning?”

Ty shook his head. “I think he and Mac are giving each other plenty of space.” Which felt like the wrong move in his opinion, but he’d been married for zero days in the whole of his life, so who was he to judge?

Nick made a sound in his throat.

“Lyd and Mac are hanging out at the zoo with the kids today. I’m hoping that Mac might say something of value that Lydia will pass along.” As he spoke, his phone alerted him to a text.

Snagging the phone off the table, he grinned as he looked at the selfie Lydia had taken of herself and Everly by one of the large tanks with a seal in the background.

Definitely not a mermaid.

Chuckling, he shook his head as he responded. No, definitely not.

It’s starting to get really hot. We’re heading home.

K. See you in a bit.

Ev wanted me to tell you that she couldn’t find the unicorns.

He grinned again. I guess it wasn’t her day.

I think we can safely say that there are no magical creatures living here at the zoo.

He chuckled again as he glanced up, realizing that Nick was watching him.